Archives for July 2013

I’ve read more than enough stories by people who have made and are still making lots of cash online without having personal blogs. And many of these stories are true.

So, having a blog is not a criterion for succeeding in online business. But I will always insist that a blog will amplify your success because a blog is like a pedestal for any internet-based business.

I’ve never heard anyone claim that setting up a blog reduced his or her online income. Rather, a blog makes you even more money (this may be after some time, though). And that’s why you should set up a blog from the outset.

Aside the fact that sharing your knowledge and expertise with others — through a blog — would make you feel fulfilled in a way, there are other reasons why you should have a blog. And these further explain why blogs could be real money spinners.

Here are 3 reasons why you should have a blog — regardless of the online business you’re into:

1. A blog attracts repeat customers/traffic

Your blog is your online business empire — your showroom where others can see and buy what you offer and check back whenever they need it.

If you’re a freelancer, your blog is your portfolio. If you’re an affiliate marketer or information marketer, your blog is your catalog. Even if you’re just sharing your knowledge, expertise, or some gist, your blog is your megaphone. So, a blog is a powerful tool for promoting any online (or offline) business.

An online entrepreneur without a blog is a like a salesperson who has no showroom; he has to proactively find customers all the time. But if you have a blog, you’ll attract more visitors and customers — passively. And they’ll take whatever action you expect from them, even without you telling them. (And remember, the more traffic you attract, the more money you’ll make.)

2. A blog builds credibility

As you may already know, I’m a freelance writer. And I stated in my story that I started making more money when I created a blog for my writing business than I did before doing that. The reason isn’t cryptography; I made more money simply because the blog boosted my credibility, made clients trust me and my skills the more, and portrayed me as an expert writer.

If you’re an affiliate marketer, featuring quality content will compel visitors to buy the products you’re promoting. As an information marketer, you’ll make more money by creating a blog that features loads of information on how visitors can benefit from your product — rather than create a static page website and slap up a sales copy that may not convert.

So, having a blog will make you even more money than you will make (or may already be making) from freelancing, information marketing, affiliate marketing, or whatever online business you’re into.

3. You can earn profit through various channels

Regardless of what online business you’re trying to promote with your blog, you can make more money from the same blog by featuring sponsored product reviews, displaying ads on your blog pages, selling affiliate products, and so on.

Because you can monetize a single blog in many ways, you’ll continue to make money from it through other channels if your primary income channel crumbles unexpectedly.

(However, keep in mind that it would take time for your blog to start making money from multiple channels as described.)

Bottom line

So, if you’re of the mindset that you can make money online — or you’re making the money already — without your own website or blog, that’s cool. Very cool. But I would recommend that you create your own blog — to boost your income and hasten your journey towards the success you’ve always dreamed of.

Let’s chat!

Do you disagree with any of my points? Or do you think I missed some points? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

1. Algorithm update

An algorithm update is an automated massive alteration by search engines, which is aimed at checking unethical SEO practices among webmasters. Examples of popular algorithm updates are Panda and Penguin, both by Google.

During an algorithm update, websites found to have violated the regulations of search engines in some ways are either demoted in the SERPs or removed from the rankings altogether.

For example, during an update targeted at websites that have created unnatural backlinks, websites found guilty of creating such links would be demoted or de-indexed.

2. Social media

Social media refers to the various means of online interactions among people, in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks. It comprises social networking and social bookmarking.

A social networking site is a platform for promoting interaction among people who share similar interests, activities, backgrounds, and real life connections. Examples of social networking websites include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.

A social bookmarking service refers to a platform through which users store, share, organize, and manage links and bookmarks to valuable web pages and online resources. Examples of social bookmarking sites include Digg, Reddit, and Stumbleupon. The best site for promotion is themarketingheaven.com.

3. Article marketing

This online marketing strategy entails creating valuable and relevant articles that center around your business or blog topic. These articles are then submitted to reputable article directories, with the aim of generating traffic and high quality backlinks for SEO.

4. Guest posting

This is another online marketing technique, which involves publishing valuable content on high quality (in terms of traffic and Google Page Rank) blogs within your niche.

The aim of guest posting is to drive traffic to your blog or website and to create high quality backlinks from other sites.

5. Traffic

This simply refers to the visits that a website or blog attracts.

6. Duplicate content

Duplicate content refers to large chunks of content that appear on more than one web page — either on the same website or on different websites.

Search engines frown at duplicate content and penalize websites found guilty of duplicating content from other websites.

Plagiarism is the practice of copying and publishing content from another web page without the approval of the owner. Plagiarized content is regarded as duplicate content by search engines.

7. PPC

PPC means pay-per-click, and it refers to an internet marketing strategy used to direct traffic to websites.

In PPC marketing, advertisers pay for each click on their ads, which are usually placed on SERPs or on websites that feature content related to the ads.

8. Newsletter

This refers to a series of email messages sent to your blog subscribers. Your subscribers are regular visitors to your blog who have opted to receive these regular messages from you. These may be updates about your blog or business, or some other valuable information. A mailing list is the group of email addresses to which you send your newsletter.

9. RSS Feed

RSS means Really Simple Syndication. It is a way of easily distributing a blog’s content (such as new posts) to its regular readers without them having to visit the website.

Subscribers to an RSS feed can read the syndicated content using specialized readers that organize the content in an easy-to-read format.

10. HTML/ CSS

HTML stands for Hypertext Markup Language. A system of codes, it is the main computer language for creating web pages. As a blogger or internet entrepreneur, you’ll need some basic knowledge of HTML.

CSS means Cascading Style Sheet. It is a set of coded instructions that define the semantics and architecture of a web page.

So, HTML is used to structure content, while CSS is used for formatting structured content.

11. Infographic

An infographic (information graphic) is a visual representation of some valuable information. It may contain statistical charts and other concrete illustrations.

An infographic is a fun and quick way to learn about a topic without having to read chunks of text. Infographics are commonly used as link baits.

Your turn?

Do you still not understand some terms? Do you think I missed some terms? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.

Following is a glossary of terms that are frequently used in online business. (Pardon me, but I’ll assume that you’re a complete beginner who has no idea what any of these terms mean.)

1. Search engine

This is a program that is designed to help retrieve information from the internet. Google is the most commonly used search engine. Other popular search engines of great importance to internet entrepreneurs are Yahoo and Bing.

SERPs (search engine result pages) are the pages on which search results are displayed after a query.

2. Keyword

A keyword is a word or phrase that is used by online entrepreneurs in search engine optimization. Keywords are gathered based on how people enter their queries while searching for information on the web.

For example, assume you’re an affiliate marketer who sells products that cure acne.

If you discover, during a keyword research, that many people who want to buy treatments for acne are searching Google using the query “acne cure”, you will simply pick this query as your keyword and optimize your website/blog for it. This will make your website show up in Google’s results pages when people search Google with the query.

3. Keyword research

This is the process of finding out the queries that people use to search the web for relevant information.

Keyword research helps you know which keywords to optimize your website/blog for. It also gives you hints on the type of information that your target audience are looking for.

4. Long tail keyword

A long tail keyword (or a long tail) is simply a keyword phrase that comprises four words and more. Though they attract less traffic, long tails are very important because they are more specific, and they attract the specific visitors you’re targeting.

For example, if you’re an affiliate marketer for acne cure products, your blog would offer relevant information such as the definition, causes, and home remedies of acne — with your affiliate links subtly sprinkled within your content.

Even though you discuss the causes of acne on your blog, your aim is to attract visitors who would buy the product through your affiliate links, not those who would visit your blog just to learn the causes of acne and hit the close button.

In order to streamline your targeted visitors to only those who would buy the products you’re marketing, you’d have to target a keyword phrase like “buy acne cure online” or any other related keyword discovered to be commonly used by consumers.

Now get this: If you target a more generic keyword, such as “acne cure”, you’ll attract more visitors. But your visitors in this case would include those who want to learn how to cure acne with diet, home remedies for acne, herbs for curing acne, etc. Of course, these people are of no use to you (LOL!) You only need those who are ready to buy a product from an online store. If you target only such visitors, you’ll make more money because they’ll click on your affiliate links and buy the products you’re marketing (even though you’ll generate less traffic).

5. Content

Content is a collective term referring to the information — in any medium — that you offer on your website or blog. It could be in various formats, such as text, images, video, mp3, slideshow, etc.

Text remains the best format in which content is offered. This is because search engines analyze only the text on a page to figure out what the page is all about. Also, text is easily accessible for all users (some browsers may not display images properly and some visitors may not want to download mp3 and video files due to their usually large size).

Quality content refers to information that readers or visitors find very valuable because it answers their questions and solves their problems. You must offer this type of content all the time, to attract repeat visitors.

6. Search engine optimization

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the practice that involves implementing certain tactics aimed at improving the visibility of a website in SERPs. The higher a website ranks in SERPs, the more traffic it will attract. And this is the main reason why webmasters will continue to battle for the top ranks by implementing various SEO tactics.

On-page/on-site optimization refers to the SEO alterations that you make on the pages of your website or blog. You’re in control of these.

Off-page SEO refers to SEO alterations that you make outside of your website. Either you or visitors to your website make these alterations. So, you’re not in total control of your off-page SEO.

White-hat SEO techniques refer to SEO practices that are encouraged and are totally in accordance with the stipulations of the major search engines.

Black-hat SEO techniques refers to SEO practices that are prohibited by search engines. Webmasters adopt black-hat SEO techniques in order to achieve quick results. However, search engines penalize webmasters found guilty of this by either blacklisting and demoting their websites in SERPs or removing such websites completely.

7. Backlink

This is a link on one website redirecting to another website. Backlinks are very important because Google ranks websites based on the quantity and quality of links pointing to them.

A “nofollow” link is one that has been tagged with a special code, which instructs search engines to ignore the link and not count it as one of the links to consider when grading the site’s quality.

A “dofollow” link is one which has not been tagged with this code, and which is considered by search engines when ranking websites.

8. Linkbuilding

This is an off-page SEO practice, which involves proactively embedding backlinks on other websites. These backlinks redirect to your own website when clicked.

Ethical linkbuilding refers to link building practices that are in line with the guidelines laid down by the major search engines, while unethical link building involves adopting dubious means that are frowned upon by search engines.

9. Anchor text

This is the clickable text that indicates a link. In other words, it is the text you click on, which in fact is a link that redirects to another page.

10. Link-bait

A link-bait is any content or feature on a website that is interesting enough to catch people’s attention. Link-baits are designed specifically to gain attention or encourage others to link to a website.

11. Page Rank

Page Rank (PR) is a measure of the quality of a web page. It is based on complex mathematical calculations that analyze the quality and quantity of backlinks to a page, among other factors. Page Rank is one of the factors that influence the ranking of a web page in SERPs.

A PR of N/A depicts that Google is yet to analyze a website. A PR of 0-1 depicts a new website that is of low quality. A PR of 2-4 depicts intermediate quality. A PR of 5 and above depicts high quality. Authority websites such as Wikipedia have PR of 6 to 10.

12. Alexa rank

Alexa rank is a measure of the traffic a website receives relative to other websites.

To be continued…

In the next post, I’ll be defining more terms that every newbie in online business must know and understand. So, stay glued to this blog, and you won’t miss anything.

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Your turn?

Are you still having problems understanding some of the terms explained in this post? Are there some terms you want me to explain in the continuation post? Kindly share your thoughts by leaving a comment.